A New Civilization
by EpicPwner333
Summary: In the world of Minecraftia, there are many countries, many kingdoms. But when chaos errupts and threatens to engulf these established outposts of civilization, one motley band of heroes and others will try and establish order and justice in this harsh new world.
1. Daniel Redstone

The bells clanged, ringing out in joy and splendor.

They reflected the Armaya Kingdom's mood. At that moment, a great feast was being held in the dining hall of the Royal Castle, and the whole city was there. They were celebrating the safe return of Great King Darius's eldest son, Prince Mason, from the great wars raging to the southeast of the city against the Desert Bandits who were trying to destroy all civilization in the world of Minecraftia. Or at least that was what the leaders said.

Outside the castle, a steady stream of citizens were flowing in to the spacious dining hall. In that torrent of people, two teenagers were having an animated conversation, to say the least.

"Come on man, what do you mean you aren't coming to the feast?" said the first.

"I told you, I have something else to do." replied the second.

"Daniel, what could ever come between us and that amazing food they have in there?" said the first one again.

"Not us. Me. Like I said Cliff-" Daniel was cut off. "It's Clifford! Not Cliff, not Cliffo, not anything else!" Cliff angrily interjected.

"Whatever. Like I said," he paused, "Cliffford, I have something else to do. I'm not a food snob like you."

"It's not my fault my dad's a cook! What the matter with liking food?" Cliff said.

"Nothing-look, I need to get to my parents, they're going to be at the back of the line. I'll see you inside." Daniel quickly lied as he hurried out of the entryway they had reached while they were talking.

What Cliff couldn't know was that Daniel Redstone had no parents-they were dead. Daniel had grown up in a rural town on the outskirts of Armaya territory. His town had been destroyed in one of the first Desert Bandit raids. Daniel had grown up in the City and was a blacksmith's apprentice. A quite good one, as he might say. But Daniel has other aspirations…

Daniel ran through the now deserted streets of Armaya City. Past the mansion, through Main Street, a left on Oak Boulevard, and up Weapon Lane and into the Cabe's Blacksmith shop, where he ran to his room and grabbed his personal iron sword. He tucked it away and started running back towards the castle.

**Hello everyone, this is just a introduction chapter for our protagonist, Daniel Redstone! I will now give all the credit for the idea o for last names being resources found in Minecraft to the author of Prophecy of Minecraftia, MachanixAngel! (Cheers and applause!) Please feel free to review. Daniel and Cliff are only two main/secondary characters in the story, and the next chapter will be dealing with the third character! There may be opportunities for OC submissions later in the story! Will try to update every 1 or 2 days! **


	2. The Princess and the Soldier to be

While Daniel ran towards the castle, another teenager was already in the castle. But their paths would soon cross…

"Mom, can't I at least get out for some fresh air? This dining hall is so crowded tha-"a teenage girl said.

"No. Well, why do you even want to? It's not every day we have a massive feast like this. Anyways, we're royalty. We can't just leave the table whenever we want. Our duty is to stay here." The mother interrupted.

"Royalty!? I suppose so, but not _really_…" the girl began. She stopped when her mother gave her a disapproving look.

"This place is stuffy, crowded, and filled with people drunk on Potions or giddy with excitement. Am I the only sane person here? I thought there's a war going on." She sulked.

"Please dear, our brave soldiers will defend us. If you must, I suppose you may briefly exit the dining hall. Just stay inside the castle grounds please!" her mother yelled after her as she hurried away.

"Finally…Thank Notch I'm out of there." she muttered. Nobody noticed as she walked out of the entryway, and took a left into the main castle area. She explored for a little bit, examining the horses in their stable, and putting a cursory glance over the barracks and armory. She was just about to move on when she heard peculiar noises coming from the barracks. She heard the whoosh of a swinging sword, the thud of it hitting something, and the grunts of the person wielding it. Curiosity got the better of her, and she carefully peeked inside the courtyard. There, lit up by the torches attached to the walls, she saw a person busily attacking one of the training dummies set up in the corner. However, the second she saw what he was doing, he noticed her peeking around the corner.

"Who goes there?" the voice ran out clear and strong. _Maybe he's a soldier_ she thought.

"Merinatha Emerald. _Princess_ Marinatha Emerald. And who are you to address me that way?" Sometimes it was nice to be able to throw what little weight she had around.

"Oh, I'm sorry, your Majesty. Forgive me." the figure moved into the brighter light in front of her and kneeled down. She saw he was just a normal teenager like her, brown hair, but even now with him kneeling, she could tell that he was taller than her.

"Oh, I didn't mean it that way…" she blushed, "I'm not really a princess." she stammered.

"And how is that?" he wondered.

"I'm the fourth child of the sixth daughter of Great King Darius. I'm not very royal. Please, just call me Meri. And if you would be so kind as to tell me who you are and why you're attacking a training dummy in the barracks while the entire city is at the feast?" Meri asked.

"Well, um… I'm Daniel Redstone, the apprentice at Cabe's Blacksmith Shop. I'm here because… can you keep a secret?"

Meri nodded.

"In that case, I've always wanted to be a soldier. The guard at the gate always lets me practice on the training dummies with my sword." he paused "Wait, why are _you_ not at the feast? You're part of the royalty!? I'm just a citizen, but you're a _princess!" _he realized.

"I said, I'm not really much of a princess. I guess I'm just a regular girl with a few...er..._benefits." _she said.

"Benefits eh? Like living in a palace and never having to worry about being attacked in you life with an army to protect you?" he said somewhat heatedly.

Meri saw she had touched a nerve, for whatever reason. "I'm sorry. I'm not all that different from you. Say, didn't you mention you practice sword moves?"

"Yeah." Daniel said, hefting his iron sword. He deftly sliced the dummy, spun around, then stabbed the dummy and followed up with a heroic looking leap into the air... and then screwed up the landing slice and fell to the ground. He jumped up, reddened and looking ready to climb a mountain. Meri laughed.

"Hey! Why are you laughing?" Daniel angrily asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry - I didn't mean that to be mean. It was...funny!" Meri said, reddening as well.

"Ok. Sorry, It's just so easy to fathom you, a member of the royalty looking down on me, a humble citizen." he semi-sulked.

"I'm probably the most obscure royalty you'll ever see! I wish people would treat me as an ordinary girl. I wish _you_ would treat me as a ordinary girl!" she said bitterly.

"Alright. You know, you still haven't answered wh-" A crash interrupted him.

"What was that?" Meri asked.

"That crash came from the gates...we're under attack!"

**Action time! :D A third character has been introduced, only one more to go! (for now...) Thank you for reading, and remember, reviews are welcome!**


	3. Supplies and Losses

"What? Won't the walls stop them? Meri asked, worried.

"Think of the condition of the guards in the castle." Daniel said.

"What do you mean?" Meri asked again, still confused.

"Just tell me what the guards in the castle were doing." he clarified

"Um, they were drunk. Oh no..." she realized what this meant. "The wall guards are unprepared to fight back. Don't they know there's a war going on!?" she exclaimed, angry.

"We need to get out of the barracks. The guards will be coming, and not all of them know about my arrangement to be there." Daniel said, grabbing Meri's arm and pulling her along. She brushed him off.

"I can run just fine, if you please."

"Whatever you say."

The two ran along to the entrance of the castle. Before they were able to reach it, a huge rock came flying over the castle wall and slammed into the entryway. Before Daniel or Meri were able to react, a portion of the castle wall came crashing down, destroyed by another rock.

"When did the Desert Bandits get catapults!?" Daniel worndered out loud. "Never mind, we need to get into the city!"

"But we'll be the only ones there! Surely they'll find us!" Meri worried.

"No, there were other people that left early too. I saw them. Anyways, not many people will want to stay cooped up inside that castle." Daniel said. "Come ON!"

As he spoke, other rocks came crashing through other portions of the castle wall. Meri and Daniel started running for one of them. They jumped over the debris and ran for the nearest row of houses.

"We need to hide." Daniel said, panting for breath.

"We can hide in your house, can't we?" Meri asked.

"The Blacksmith's Shop IS my home." Daniel replied.

They started creeping along the alleyways of the houses. Every once in a while, a group of Armaya soldiers would run by, and Meri was sure several of them saw her and Daniel, but they didn't seem to care. They saw no signs of Bandits, and after thirty minutes they managed to reach Cabe's Blacksmith Shop. When they got through the door, they gasped in horror.

"No..." Daniel sobbed as he saw what had happened. The shop was ransacked, and Cabe was lying on the ground, several arrows sticking out of him. He was in a leather tunic and helmet, and he still clutched an iron sword in his hand. " He was like a father to me..." Daniel said once he regained his composure.

"Don't you have your own father?" Meri saked

Daniel gave her a hard, pained look. "He's dead. Killed by Desert Bandits. So is my mom. And now, Cabe."

"Oh." Meri said, feeling horrible she had said anything at all. "I'm...sorry." she said finally.

"What are you sorry for? You didn't kill them." Daniel replied, still obviously angry. "Come one. I know a secret storage area where Cabe kept some supplies."

Meri followed Daniel once again as he walked to the corner of the furnace room.

"Here..." Daniel said. Looking at the wooden plank that made up the floor.

In Minecraftia, wooden planks, and all wood in general, are quite peculiar. They are able to withstand the weight of objects placed on them, and people walking on them, but they cannot withstand applied pressure for long. Then they break, going into a form everybody there know: Liquid stage, where they simply transform into a small floatin block that can be picked up and placed. I didn't say this was easy though, and not wanting to get hurt, Daniel started slamming the planks with the bottom of his sword. A few moments later, the section broke and fell away into liquid form.

"This way." Daniel muttered as he climbed down the ladder.

As they got inside, Meri observed it was a simple basement: Three chests lined the walls, with a single torch for illumination. A backpack lay in the corner. They opened the first chest, and there was some leather armor. Daniel offered Meri some, but all she took was a helmet. Daniel got a leather tunic, pants, and boots, but no helmet. The second chest was filled with a couple weapons: several iron swords of differing sizes, and two bows each with a quiver-full of arrows. At first, Daniel was confused by the prescence of bows in an _Blacksmith's shop_, but then he saw a note at the bottom. It read:

_ Dear Daniel._

_ If you are reading this, that means that some emergency has struck the area, and need the supplies here. I may hate bows, but they still have their uses. Please, get this and go. I know I would die defending my shop, but you needn't die. Use these wisely, and for Notch's sake, don't go on a rampage for you parents and me._

_ Sincerely, Cabe._

"What did it say?" Meri asked.

With tears in his eyes, Daniel explained: "He always knew if there was fighting in here he wouldn't survive. So he left me these supplies."

"Why did he get so many? Wasn't he only planning for you?" Meri realized

"He was a bit of a hoarder - nothing ever meant enough to him. He probably got carried away." Daniel explained, cracking a sad smile. "Go ahead, get some weapons."

Meri reached in to the chest and pulled out a sword that smaller and slimmer than the one Daniel hefted, and she also slung the bow and quiver around her shoulder. Daniel also picked out a bow and quiver, but stopped when he noticed Meri had taken weapons like the bow.

"You...know how to use a bow...?" he asked, confused.

Meri had a sheepish smile on her face. "Yes, all_ royalty_ must learn to wield weaopns. I was fourth in my class!"

"How many people were in your class, then?" Daniel asked with a sly grin.

"Fifteen." she admitted, smiling as well.

"Fifteen? That's how old I am!" Daniel said.

"Same." Meri said as well.

They walked over to the last chest. When they opened it, they found a small pile of bread and pork, along with some bottles of water. Daniel picked up the backpack and but all the food in it. He then walked over to the other chests and put the leftover armor and weapons in it. After hefting the backpack onto his, er, back, he told Meri "We need to get to the castle. Maybe they'll be handing out supplies to people."

"Can't we just stay here and be safe?" Meri asked, a little frightened.

"No. The Desert Bandits will come here again. It's just a matter of time." Daniel said forcefully.

"Alright, you win." Meri conceded.

And they started climbing up the ladder. Into a war-torn city.

**Well, that was interesting... Anyways, so far I've added horses, different sized swords, quivers, and catapults to Minecraft in this story. I hope it doesn't put off experienced Minecrafters, while still having enough seperation from that infamous Minecraft repitition (punch block, get wood, make planks, make wood pick, get cobble...etc.) so non-players will enjoy it. Please feel free to review as always, and thanks for reading!**


	4. Home and Hearth, War and Hurt

When Meri and Daniel got outside, at first they couldn't see what was going on. They squinted, trying to get their eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight. When their vision cleared, both gasped at the same time. If the sight hadn't been so depressing, it would have been funny. Cabe's Blacksmith Shop was on a small hill, and this enabled the two to view almost the entire city. Most of the buildings were still standing, but many had gaping holes in them. Fires were burning all over the city, and there were Armaya Soldiers and Desert Bandits fighting in most of the streets. The town wall was breached in multiple places, and frantic attempts were underway to repair the castle wall.

"Notch save us..." Meri breathed.

"Hold on, whats that?" Daniel said to himself, squinting his eyes at a nearby street.

"What's what?"

"Come on. We have to see this." Daniel commanded.

"What is it?" Meri asked as she hurried after him down the street.

"You'll see."

They ran down the street and ran into an abandoned house. Leaping up the stairs, they moved to a nearby window as saw this sight:

A couple Armaya Soldiers and about twenty-five citizens were cautiously advancing down the street, all armed. Many of the citizens looked scared and Daniel guessed they had been "volunteered" into the Armaya Militia. However, Daniel's heart almost stopped when he recognized one of the citizens. Cliff was in the crowd of militia, holding a stone sword. Daniel was about to yell out Cliff's name when an arrow whizzed down the street and into the leg of a militiaman, who fell, screaming. This seemed to set off the rest of them, who began to panic and dive for cover. Daniel lost track of Cliff during the scuffle, and was frantically looking when Meri nudged him on the shoulder.

"Look over there! Desert Bandits!" she whispered, too curious to be fearful.

Daniel looked that way and saw about two dozen Bandits at the other end of the street. About two-thirds of them were charging down the street, curved, evil-looking swords held above their heads. The rest were holding back, firing their bows at the Armaya forces. Almost all of them wore masks and bandanas to cover their faces, and their clothing was an odd mix of styles, probably all looted from one place or another. Daniel noticed that the Bandit arrows were much smaller and thinner than the huge ones that the Armaya Archers used. In a second, the Bandits were upon the Armayans. Daniel found Cliff again in the whirlwind of fighting, and it seemed that Cliff was a pushing his opponent towards the house Daniel and Meri were in.

"I'm going downstairs." Daniel stated, and vaulted down the stairs before Meri could ask him why.

He ran to the room closest to the street and found the wall that the door was supposed to be in was gone, simply a pile of rubble. A Desert Bandit fell into the room, but quickly got back up and continued fighting with his Armayan adversary. That Armayan was Cliff, who's battered stone sword swung at the Bandit. The Bandit blocked it skillfully and watched in satisfaction as Cliff's sword broke. During this time Daniel had been frozen in place, watching the fight, but seeing Cliff become helpless he snapped out of his trance and stepped forward to swing his sword. The Bandit parried and stabbed back, with Daniel barely dodging the sword. Cliff sprang forward and drove his elbow into the Bandit's back, but the Bandit just seemed to shrug it off and whirled around to give Cliff a punch that sent him flying into the wall. Adrenalin coursed through Daniel's veins as his sword became a hurricane of motion, slashing, stabbing, parrying, slicing. The Bandit blocked each and every one of those strokes, but found himself being pushed up the stairway.

"Take THAT!" Meri shouted as she bashed the Bandit on the head with the flat of her sword. She had been watching from the stairway the entire time.

The Bandit gasped and fell down the stairs, unconscious. Meri followed after him.

"You know, I was doing fine until you stepped in." Daniel noted.

"Nonsense. The Bandit was gonna win." Meri said with a smile, pleased with herself.

"Uuuuugh..." the groan made both teenagers turn. Cliff was staggering towards them. "W-where did you come from, Dan?" he slurred.

"Shhhhh. Take it easy, buddy." Daniel chided. "You took a nasty hit back there."

"Here, sit down." Meri said as she slid a chair up.

As Cliff slumped down into the chair, Meri said "I assume you know this guy, right?"

"Yes. He's basically my only friend in this city." Daniel assured her.

"Oh, and I'm not your friend?"

"Well, I mean-er, yes I-not re-yes, I suppose, then." Daniel said, blushing, and angry at himself for it. Why was that so hard? He barely knew her, anyways.

"Heh heh. Looks like someone has a hard time deci-" Meri stopped suddenly, staring.

Daniel was at first glad that she had stopped talking along those lines, but then turned around to see what she was looking at. A Bandit, much smaller and slimmer then most of the others was in the middle of the street, dodging every huge Armayan arrow coming down the street, while simultaneously firing a small bow. Like the rest of the Bandits, this one wore a bandana covering their face. Unlike most Bandits, however, this one was wearing clothes that seemed to belong more in the actual desert: a coarse brown tunic that provided doubtful protection, and flowing pants. As they watched, the Bandit rolled to dodge another arrow and ended up in a war-torn, half-destroyed house. Their house.

**:O First real cliffhanger of the series! As you see, I try the make the enemies as skillful as possible. There is nothing I hate more in a story than the main characters cutting through dozens of human enemies, seemingly without breaking a sweat. Desert Bandits are not pushovers, and as we'll find, some aren't that bad, and our heroes aren't able to effortlessly defeat anything they see, which I like. PLEASE R&R and as always, thanks for reading! **


	5. Duel and Discoveries

**Quick note before we begin: I will not consider OC submissions until I have a sufficient fanbase to lean upon. 10-15 reviews, hopefully. Thanks!**

The Desert Bandit seemed just as surprised at the sudden appearance of the three Armayans as the three Armayans were of the Bandit. However, the Bandit recovered quickly and sprang at the group, drawing the string back on her bow at the same time. Surprisingly, Cliff was the first Armayan to react, also leaping forward , clutching a broken board. The Bandit released the arrow, which swiftly lodged itself into the wood. Cliff swung the board at his opponent, but the Bandit ducked and hit him with a clenched fist. Cliff, momentarily stunned, stepped back.

"Cliff! Over here, man!" Daniel yelled as he dug an iron sword out of backpack and tossed it at Cliff, who caught it by its handle.

"Thanks!" he replied gratefully as he assumed a fighting position. "You deal with the guy's friend!"

Daniel and Meri turned, noticing for the first time the first Bandit was getting up. They started for him. "You deal with this new guy, then!"

"On it." Cliff muttered as he sliced his sword diagonally at his target. The Bandit dropped the bow and dove to the left, drawing a small sword. Their blades clashed and parried all over the room. Their sword fight took them past Meri, Daniel and the original Bandit and up the staircase to the second floor, with Cliff having the advantage of size, strength and stamina, while his opponent seemed to be able to dodge and duck every stroke of his. But the Bandit was tiring, he saw.

_I'll win this eventually if we keep going like this. _Cliff thought. As if the Bandit had read his mind, the attacks on Cliff doubled in intensity, one last-ditch effort to win before their strength was exhausted. Cliff managed to avoid being hit up to this point, but just as he thought is opponent was tiring out to defeat, the Bandit ran towards the wall, jumped at it, and launched off the wall at Cliff, knocking him down to the ground. The Bandit was atop him in a split second, and was about to finish him with a sword. However, Cliff saw in the Bandit's eyes a peculiar emotion...something that kept the Bandit from killing him. Pity? Youth? Inexperience? Cliff had assumed this Bandit would fight to kill, but that didn't seem to be the case. Then, he saw the resolve in those green eyes firm up. Before he found out if the Bandit had finally decided to kill him or not, the world seemed to spin around crazily.

When he regained conscious thought maybe thirty seconds later, the first thing he thought was a realization that a catapult rock had hit the second floor of the house and had totally destroyed two walls and the roof. He had been very lucky not to have been hurt, but it looked as if the Bandit had not been so lucky.

"Aaaaaaaaagh..." the Bandit moaned.

_Quite lucky as well, I see._ Cliff thought, getting up. He started walk over to the fallen Bandit when the floor beneath them crumbled away. Cliff managed to jump onto a safe spot, but the Bandit, who had just been getting up, was extremely lucky to be able to grab onto the edge of the floor. The Bandit's bandana came off, and Cliff found he had been fighting a girl all this time. _Why did she spare me?_ _Pity? Youth? Inexperience? Probably all three_. he realized as he studied the Bandit closely. She was approximately his age, with flowing black hair almost obscuring her tanned face. Cliff imagined he could see the fear in the Bandit's eyes. _I could hit her off. End this right now. She is a Bandit, after all. _He smacked himself in the head._ What kind of person are you Cliff? Thinking about hitting defenseless girls off the sides of buildings. _Cliff obeyed his conscience and reached a hand down.

"Grab on." he ordered.

A second later, Cliff realized he had been mistaken in his assumption that the girl was defenseless. She still had her sword, and she started swinging wildly into the air at him. Cliff jerked back instinctively, but then realized how futile her attempts to hurt him were.

"Will you just stop already? Look at yourself, you can't hit me. Do you really want to die like this? Here, hand me you sword so I can pull both of your hands." he said.

"And who says you will not kill me with my own sword, _Roches?_" she snarled back.

"If I wanted to kill you, I could have just stepped on your hands. Grab on!" he replied, getting a little annoyed.

"Fine." she said as she handed him her sword. Cliff proceeded to pull her up. Both teenagers just sat there for a minute, panting, winded.

"Do you want to keep fighting?" the girl said finally.

"No. Not at all. Anyways, look, your Bandits have been pushed back. You're in Armaya territory now." Cliff smiled.

"My friends will be back. Oh no...look down there!" she gasped.

Cliff turned to look down into the street. There, three captured Bandits were kneeling before a group of Armaya Archers.

"Prepare to fire!" the leader yelled.

"Oh Notch..." Cliff breathed. He realized that the Bandit girl was holding her bow in her hand, ready to shoot.

"No, don't!" Cliff said as he grabbed her arm.

"But they're going to kill them!" she exclaimed with pain in her eyes.

"If you shoot one of them, they'll come in here and kill you!" Cliff responded.

Before the argument could continue, both heard a clear command: "Fire!", the twang of the arrows, and then the screams. And then the silence.

**Hey guys! I just realized I put out THREE CHAPTERS totalling 3,000 words in one day! Whew, glad that's over. R&R PLEASE. Couple on notes: Cliff _is_ a major character so I won't kill him off as part of some motivation for Daniel. Also, I'd like to mention that if I could, I would have put a third theme as "Friendship". Just sayin. I'm not suprised by lack of reviews/views (only 87 views D:), since even I generally only take notice of stories when they have 10+ chapters and 7,500+ words...so I've got a long way to go. Oh well, see you tommorow, whatever faithful readers I may have so far!**


	6. Only in Each Other

**Sorry I didn't explain last chapter, but _Roches_ is a derogatory term for foreigners in traditional Desert Bandit tongue. Carry on!**

Cliff and the Bandit girl were speechless, and frozen in utter shock. Cliff could not believe that Armayan Soldiers had just excecuted prisoners._ Prisoners!_

"Look, um, what's your name?" Cliff asked.

"Zevara. Or just plain Zev. Doesn't matter." Zev, as we shall now call her slurred. She still seemed to be in a state of shock.

"Ok, Zev. Those soldiers may have just done that, but most Armayans are NOT like that. I'm not like that! Trust me. Please." Cliff said, grabbing Zev's shoulder and looking her straight into her eyes.

"Re-really?" Zev asked, wide eyed. She had lost that fierce aura of hostility she had previously had.

Before Cliff could answer, Daniel and Meri came up the steps, all smiles.

"Ah, I see you defeated your ene- Meri, watch out!" Daniel barked as he noticed Zev kneeling in the corner. Both Armayans whipped out their swords.

"So you lied to me. All Armayans ARE like this!" Zev scowled as she brandished her own sword.

"No no no. Everyone stay calm for a minute! Stop! Put those damned swords away! Please!" Cliff yelled as he stepped into the middle.

"Cliff old buddy, I think your going crazy. This Desert Bandit is the enemy!" Daniel smiled.

"She has a name!" Cliff said.

"And why did you take the time to find out?" Daniel replied.

Before their argument could continue, a voice came from the first floor. "You guys found another Bandit?"

Daniel was about to respond yes when he noticed Cliff putting his finger on his lips. "Just play along with this. Please!" Cliff pleaded as he turned to Zev. "Hide!" She needed no encouragement, and quickly dove behind some rubble.

Conflicted, Daniel turned towards the Armayan Soldier who entered the room. "You guys see any more Bandits? By the way, good job handing that Bandit over to us." the soldier said.

"What are you doing with the bandits you captured?" Cliff asked.

"We take care of them..." the soldier evaded. Both Daniel and Meri saw the truth now.

"You mean...you kill them? That's horrible!" Meri gasped.

"Who told you that?" the soldier said, scowling as he took a step forward reaching for his sword. "Did you see what happened?"

"Oh, um, of course not. What was there to see?" Daniel awkwardly smiled.

The soldier frowned and pulled out a whistle. "I'm sorry to have to do this, but no one can know about what happens to those Bandit scum. No one..."

Both Daniel and Cliff tensed up. "You're not doing what I'm thinking you're doing, right...?" Daniel asked, wide-eyed.

"Sorry kiddo." the soldier said.

At this Zev jumped up and wrapped her arms around the soldier's neck. He cried out as Zev threw him at the wall. He was tougher than he looked, however, and got up almost immediately. Cliff ran at him and slammed his elbow into the soldier's chest, but the blow hurt him more than the soldier, thanks to some annoying iron armor. Cliff stepped backwards, dazed by the pain, but nevertheless the soldier was knocked back by the blow. Meanwhile, Daniel and Meri were surprised by the appearance of two more Armayan Soldiers coming up the stairs, apparently alerted by the first soldier's cry of pain. They were clearly younger and less brutish than the one fighting Zev and Cliff, but they still were threats.

"What in the Nether is going on here?" one of the new soldiers wondered.

"Beats m-" the other one didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. Meri had given a good shove to a half-destroyed drawer and it bounced down the stairs, knocking out one of the soldiers, and stunning the other one. Daniel abruptly lept down and slammed that one's head into the wall, rendering him unconscious. Daniel and Meri high-fived, but then remembered that there was still was a soldier upstairs. The two teens sprinted back up the stairs to find...

The iron armor and somehow been destroyed or removed, and Cliff was punching full force into the soldier. Zev was laying in one corner, dazed by a powerful blow from the soldier, and the soldier himself was slowly winning the fist fight with Cliff. Before Daniel or Meri were able to intervene, Zev sprang up and landed a flying kick into the soldier's face. The soldier reeled back, and Zev followed up with a series of lightning quick punches and chops. unfortunately, those didn't work as well as the kick, and the soldier was recovering when Cliff gritted his teeth and hit the soldier with everything he had. The soldier stepped back a few paces, utterly incapacitated, but was knocked out for good when Zev smashed him over the head with a board.

"You know, even though you finished him, _I_ won that fight for us." Cliff observed with a self-satisfied smile.

"Nonsense, he would have smashed you to a pulp without me distracting him!" Zev laughed.

"He was gonna kill us. That _Armayan_ soldier was going to kill us, loyal Armayan citizens!" Meri said, disbelief etched across her face.

Cliff and Daniel fell silent, pondering that horrendous thought. Zev was indifferent, being a target of Armayan Soldiers no matter what, but she did recognize the significance of this.

"Maybe we shouldn't be such loyal Armayans now should we?" Cliff growled.

"Let's not be too hasty now..." Meri cautioned.

"Either way, you're now all a target for them. Those soldiers we fought will describe us to the rest of them. Unless of course, squeamish city folk like you want to kill them where they lay..." Zev commented with a half-smile.

"Not a chance." Daniel said. "Though the irony would be sweet..."

"We need to get moving. Once they wake up, we'll want to be far, far away from this house. We need find stuff. And we need to survive." Cliff stated. The others nodded their heads in agreement.

"By the way, Zev, what's your last name? Lazuli? Glowstone? Gravel? Diamond?" Cliff asked, the last question earning him a smile from Zev.

"No...you see, the _Shotalri_, Desert Bandits as you call us, have a different naming system then you. First name of our parents, grand-parents, etc. Up to 9 names. My full name is Zevara Clonea Darus Gordkol Lena Foneros Matlyfil Jastus Vilinuz. Or, Zevara Vilinuz for a shorter version." she said.

"Daniel Redstone"

"Merinatha Emerald"

"Cliff Lazuli"

"Alright then, let's get moving..." her voice trailed off as they walked down the stairs, and out the house.

And into a city that no longer welcomed them.

"Who can we trust?" Meri asked on the street.

"Only each other, now." Daniel sadly replied, and all heads nodded their assent.

**So sorry for no new chapter yesterday, but I shall make off for it today! I promise min. of two new chapters today, Friday! R&R as always!**

**+exb756 Thank you so much for your review, it means the world to me!**


	7. The Other Side of Armaya

**Ok, ok, only one chapter on friday. Doesn't really matter, but oh well...It took forever to get this chapter out!**

Daniel, Meri, Cliff, and Zev silently and slowly were making their way across the city. Every once in a while, a group of Armayan Soldiers or some Militia would march past, but they stayed to the streets. The houses and alleyways belonged to the looters, gangs, and thieves, as our group found out.

"What's that?" Meri asked, pointing. The others turned to see a group of people clustered around a fire, warming themselves. It was an odd group, filled with an assortment of heavily armored swordsmen, one person wielding a bow, and a couple more armed with nothing but stone swords.

"Looters." Daniel breathed. "Not good."

"Over here!" Came a voice, yelling from the house they were next to. All realized there was a sentry that was on the roof, and that he had seen them. Everyone around the fire whipped their heads in the groups' general direction, about eight looters in all, and started running towards them.

"Split up!" Cliff said. "We'll draw off the swordsmen, you guys fight the others."

As they began to get up to run in down different streets, Daniel said "By the way, those guys just stole their equipment. Their not real swordsmen."

"Same here." Zev nodded. "That bowman doesn't know anything about wielding a bow."

Cliff and Daniel took off one way. They looked back behind them to see two of the armored looters chasing them, with one stone sword person tagging along. They could definitely outrun the armored pursuers, but the lone guy was catching up quickly, unhindered by backpacks and heavy equipment.

"We make out stand here, OK?" Cliff whispered, looking at a nearby wall.

"Gotcha." was all Daniel said in reply. Daniel started to slow down and threw off his pack, but Cliff kept sprinting straight at that wall, nevertheless dropping his pack as well. _If Zev can do this to me, I can do it to this looter._ Cliff thought. He leapt at the wall, hit it feet first, and pushed off of it like Zev had done to him. His pursuer had sheathed his word to run better, and was unable to fully take it out before Cliff tackled him. They fell to the ground kin=cking and punching. Before Daniel could turn to help his friend, he saw he had bigger worries. The two armored people had caught up with him.

"Cliff, you left me with these two!" he yelled as they ran at him.

"Sorr-" Cliff was interrupted by his opponent punching him in the face. _If I could hold my own against Zev, I can defeat this guy. Why do I keep thinking of Zev?_

Daniel held out his sword, daring one of his attackers to strike first, but both hesitated. _I knew they weren't trained swordsmen. They're just bigger and stronger then their fellow looters. If they had any sense at all, they'd both attack at once, overwhelm me._

Save that one good punch the looter got off, Cliff was dominating the fight. The looter wasn't accustomed to having his targets fighting back, Cliff realized. He was a coward. That thought was confirmed when, knocked down, the looter scrambled backwards on all fours and pulled out a knife. Cliff wasn't even scared; he was enraged. He rushed the looter, who was too shocked to defend himself. When he took out his knife, people usually cowered away. Not Cliff. He grabbed the looter, and slammed him against the wall, leaving him a quivering heap on the ground. Cliff pulled out his sword, and ran to help Daniel.

"Don't worry, I got your back!" Cliff yelled as he attacked one of the looters. Daniel was much more skilled with his swordmanship than his enemy, and quickly pushed him back. Cliff was also winning, but with less speed. Daniel finally slashed, spun around and sliced, and then jumped into the air and came down with his sword, executing the same move he had shown Meri on the night of the attack. This time, however, he didn't screw up and knocked the sword right of of the looter's hands. The looter pulled out a knife, but sizing up his chances, ran away. Cliff's enemy, seeing he was now outnumbered, turn and ran as well.

"I wish Meri had seen that..." Daniel muttured to himself, unaware that Cliff had walked up to him to congragulate him.

"Ooooh, what did I hear again? Did you say you wish our residential princess Merinatha Emerald had seen you look epic as you defeated a looter, therefore most likely _impressing_ her? Cliff said, smirking.

Daniel reddened. "Shut up. It's so obvious you have a thing for our residential_ Bandit_, Zevara Vilinuz..."

"Ok, ok. Let's save this for another time." Cliff said. "Let's just find them!"

At the same time...

The second Cliff and Daniel had run away, the Zev and Meri had run as well, unknowingly ending up on parallel streets as the guys. Zev looked back and groaned as she saw one looter with armor, three with stone swords, and one with a bow chasing them down the street.

"Meri!" Zev yelled.

"What?"

"They left us with five bandits!"

"Oh, great."

Suddenly, they came up to a dead-end. The wall was in fact the same wall the boys were fighting near, and they saw they now had no choice but to fight. Zev skidded to a stop, spun around, and then whipped out her bow and loosed a single arrow at the incoming attackers, hitting one in the knee. He cried out in pain, droping his stone sword and falling to the ground. _Shivus. Bad angle, or else I would have hit him in the head. Then again, Cliff wouldn't have tried to kill that looter...ugh! Concentrate!_ Zev thought. Meri pulled out her sword, and spun around as well.

All but one of the looters hesitated, seeing their comrade go down in a heap. The bravest one kept running at Zev. Zev notched another arrow and let it fly, but the looter, the last armored one, slid the last few feet, the arrow barely skimming over his head as he swung and Zev's feet. She jumped over his sword swing skillfully, and then smashed him in the forehead with the bottom of her sword, which she held in her free hand, knocking him out. The remaing three bandits charged them, one stopping to notch his bow. The first one clashed swords with Zev, who took a step back in suprise at his strength. She was suprised even more when he seemed to let her recover so they could continue the fight. _It looks like he wants to fight fair...screw that._ Zev tripped him, and as he fell forward she brought her knee up, breaking his nose.

Zev looked over. Meri wasn't doing too well. She was mostly trying to avoid the sword of her opponent, making Zev think she needed a bit of work on her skills before they kept on going. Zev stepped up, and swung her sword at the last looter, who noticed just in the nick of time and spun around to block it. Meri jumped at him, put him in a headlock, and threw him against the wall. He realized he was facing two people now, and ran away, only stopping to help up his wounded friend who had took an arrow to the knee. The last looter, who had been firing his bow all this time, missing horribly, also ran.

"Bravo, bravo, that was very impressive!" came a voice from a nearby alleyway. Cliff and Daniel ran out of it.

"So Meri, looks like you need a little work on fighting, don't you?" Daniel smiled.

Meri looked ashamed. "I-I'm sorry."

"Oh, no, I didn't mean it like that! You did well, you just need to get better, I guess. There's alway's room for improvement!" Daniel corrected.

Meanwhile, Cliff remarked to Zev "Not afraid to fight dirty, huh?"

"Nah. he's lucky I didn't just kill the _Roches_ right there and then with my bow.. I'm supposed to be a ruthless Desert Bandit right?" she muttured.

"I think my civilized Armayan nature must be effecting you!" Cliff said. Both laughed at that.

"Where now?" Meri finally asked.

"Yeah, where are we going?" Zev chimed in.

"First, we need somewhere to spend the night. Then we can think of where to go. Out of the city, I guess.

"But where?" Cliff interjected.

"I have an idea for that..."

**Oh no, one looter took an arrow to the knee! Guess he can't go adventuring anymore...Anyways, the plot is beginning to take shape! Where will they go? How are they gonna survive the night? And what is the idea Daniel has? Find out next time on...**

** (Epic music here)**

** A New Civilization!**

**(By the way_ Shivus_ is a Desert Bandit sware)**


	8. A Precious Commodity

**Hey guys! I seem to have gotten back into the writing groove, soooo...before we start:**

**MechanixAngel - Thank you so much for the review, and yes, bad grammar and/or spelling has ruined many a good plot.**

**Without further ado, here is our next chapter!**

The group began creeping along the alleyways of Armaya were tired. The fight with the looters had sapped whatever strength they had left, with Meri being the hardest on hit by fatigue. Daniel and Cliff were strong, and Zev was hardened by years in the desert, but Meri was pretty normal, and it showed.

"When can we get t-to sl-sleep somewhere?" Meri slurred.

"I know just the place. It's just around the corner. Daniel replied.

They got around the corner, but it took them two times the time it should have. They saw their shelter for the night was a large, abandoned mansion.

Zev's face lit up "We're...sleeping in a mansion? With a roof over our heads?" she asked hopefully.

"Um, of course?" Cliff answered, giving her an odd look.

"Oh, sorry." Zev said, looking away. "It's just, in the desert, it's _Sholtari_ tradition to sleep either outside, or in these puny little huts when there's a sandstorm, you see."

"Well then I'm sure you'll have an easy time getting to sleep in here." Cliff smiled as the group walked into the mansion.

They looked around the main entryway. It looked ransacked, but that was a good sign. Looters wouldn't bother coming into a house that was already looted.

"We'll be safe in here. We just need to get to a room on the top floor." Daniel observed. They were about to start up the stairway when Meri suddenly fell down, too tired to even stand up. Fortunately, Daniel caught her before she fell to the shards of broken glass covering the floor.

"I gotcha..." Daniel mumbled as he scooped Meri up and started carrying her up the stairs., with Meri too tired to even answer, although she did notice the act. Normally, Cliff would've made a joke, but he was too tired to say anything. Daniel was worried, though. Meri was slim and light, and he should have been easily able to carry her. However, Daniel was having the hardest time making it up the stairway, and felt like he had just ran a marathon when he finally reached to top.

"Let's just go in here." Cliff mumbled, and Zev feebly nodded her assent. Once they made it inside, they simply collapsed on top of each other, too tired to care. Daniel smirked at the sight, and made a mental note to tease Cliff when he woke up. He staggered into the room, and before setting Meri down, he gently stroked out her soft brown hair. _Why in the NETHER did I just do that!?_ Daniel demanded himself. Before he could think of a reason, Meri's eyes suddenly flew open. She didn't say anything, but strained upwards and kissed Daniel on the cheek.

"Just put me down already, ok?" she said with a sly grin.

Mouth comically dropped open, Daniel obeyed, and Meri fell to sleep in probably less than a second. Daniel was about to lay down as well, but something caught his eye. A drawer in one of the tables was slightly ajar, and something was glinting in the moonlight. Daniel carefully opened the drawer, so not to make any noise. _As if anything could wake up my friends right now... _He saw inside, and got a chill. Inside was an emerald, tied to a string, forming a necklace. _An emerald. Merinatha EMERALD. For Notch's sake, could this be any creepier? _At the word "creepier", Daniel remembered something from his school teachings. In the Outlands, the area around the fabled Highway of Armaya that lead to the Desert, there were monsters. Things like...creepers. Daniel shook the thought off. He picked up the emerald necklace, and gently placed it around Meri's neck. Daniel then sank down to the floor, and fell asleep.

His last thought was: _Sleep sure is a precious commodity. Just like every single other thing in the world now. I hope th...that I...I'll..._ and he gave into the restfulness.

**Sorry about the short chapter, but that's just the way things are sometimes, I guess. This chapter was mainly about character development, anyway. Two certain characters, that is... ;D**


	9. The Survivalists

Cliff was the first to wake up. The bright light blinded him at first, and he was surprised to see the room they were in had no roof. He lifted his arm to shine him from the blinding light, and had a second realization, that Zev was curled up in his arms. _What the...? Oh crap. Oh crap crap crap. How did this happen!? Subconsciously in my sleep, perhaps? _Zev woke up, her eyelashes batting a few times before she fully came to.

"What happened?" she asked, confused.

"I guess we sorta fell on top of each other last night..." Cliff said, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, you can get up now, I guess."

"Nah, that's fine. I can stay here for a little bit." Zev grinned. _Why did I just say that?_

"Fine with that!" Cliff grinned back, as Zev put her head on his shoulder.

They lay there for a few minutes, barely breathing. Finally, a sound broke through the reverie. Talking, moving, all coming the roof.

"What is that?" Zev asked.

"I'll check it out." Cliff said, getting up.

"No. _We'll_ check it out." Zev said, sliding out her bow. "I can handle myself."

"Never doubted that." Cliff said, remembering Zev beating him up when they first met.

They looked up at the sky above them, thinking of a way for them to get up. Cliff jumped up and grabbed ahold of the edge of the roof. He reached down one hand, and lifted Zev up to join him. Together, they heaved themselves over the edge and were surprised to see a fire, and quite a few people around it, cooking food. One of the people noticed them and called out to the others.

Two more people came out from behind a pile of debris, bows drawn. "Who are you? State your intentions!" one of them asked, a gruff-looking man with a muscular build and scarred face.

"We were sleeping in the room over there...we were just investigating a sound!" Cliff explained.

"This is Survivalist territory. Come with us, you need to explain themselves fully." the other one, a woman said. Reluctantly, Cliff and Zev followed them to the fire, where about twenty more people were waiting.

"Are you looters?" one of them asked, none too politely.

"Of course not!" Zev snapped. "We nearly got killed by them yesterday!"

"Shut up Bandit." another one growled.

"Calm down! For Notch's sake, Raymond, back off!" a guy who appeared to be the leader yelled, but it was too late. Zev stepped forward angrily, Cliff with her, and the two people who had initially found them knocked them both out with quick blows to the head.

Daniel and Meri woke up around that time. Meri yawned, and then noticed the necklace she had not been wearing when she had went to sleep last night.

"Oh wow!" she gasped, holding the emerald into the sunlight. She knew at once who was responsible for this. "Daniel!" she called out, looking around.

"Over here! Look!" Daniel said, his face a mask of worry. He was clinging to the edge of the roof, looking over. Meri climbed up, and saw that Cliff and Zev were on the ground near a large group of people, who were arguing.

"What do we do?" Meri asked, worried.

"Cliff's my friend. I don't know if Zev's your friend, but I'm not sitting here and watching them die." Daniel said as he lifted himself onto the roof.

Meanwhile at the fire, a brisk argument was going on.

"We can't just kill them! What if they're not looters!" a big, dark-haired man said.

"Marcus, even if they aren't looters, one of them is a Bandit! We still need to kill them! It's safer, and who says that more aren't coming as we speak!" Raymond said.

"Guys, hold on. We need to think this through. I'm sure we have enough time to think this through." the leader said.

"Think what through?" a voice asked. Everyone turned. Daniel stood there, sword in hand, enraged.

The two people who had knocked out Cliff and Zev stepped out from behind a pile of debris, but Daniel spun around and charged them. The woman tried to punch him, but Daniel dodged the blow, and pulled her past him, sending her sprawling into the ground near the others. The man kicked at him, but Daniel grabbed his foot and spun him to the ground, and smashed his head with his fist.

Daniel turned to face the crowd of armed people, sword in hand.

"Put down the sword!" the leader ordered.

"Give me my friends!" Daniel yelled back.

"This guy acts like a real swordsman." Marcus whispered to the leader.

"I've yet to meet a looter that's a good swordsman." the leader said.

Raymond leaned in to join the conversation. "Ah, he doesn't seem so tough to me." he said, drawing his sword.

"Just don't murder him, ok?" Marcus cautioned.

Raymond stepped forward, and arched his arm back to take a swing. Instead of just waiting there, however, Daniel rushed him and suprised the confident, tired man and tripped him. As Raymond fell, Daniel brought his knee up and hit him in the solar plexus, knocking the wind from him.

"Well then, I'm sorry about your friends. They...suprised us." the leader.

"How can I trust you?" Daniel asked, still wary.

The leader put his sword away. "Please, call me Richard. I am the leader of the Survivalist."

"And that is...?"

"A group of survivors that are dedicated to making it out of this city and setting up a new civilization." Richard explained.

"That sounds like a good enough cause to me." Daniel said. Inwardly, he felt a huge chill go down his spine. That was exactly the idea he had been nurturing for some time. "I guess my group has nothing better to do...I mean, I can't speak for my friends, but I'll join."

"Yeah, I'll join too, as long as I get five minutes alone with the guy who knocked me out!" Zev piped up, fully awake.

"How did...you get a Bandit into your group?" Raymond asked, getting up slowly.

"Long story." Cliff said.

Meri walked up. "I'll go wherever you go!" she said, grabbing onto Daniel's arm.

"Well then we know what we will be doing." Daniel remarked. "When do we leave?"

"Now." Richard said, motioning towards a nearby gate.

**Thank you, my faithful readers for reviewing, favoriting, and following my story! tomorrow I may or may not get a new chapter out, because my neck muscle is sprained and that may owe something to staring at the computer, typing all the time. By the way, the Survivalist group will have more characters besides Raymond, Marcus, and Richard, and with these characters I _may_ not be so protective of them...heh heh heh. R&R!**


	10. Out of the City

Hey** guys! The plot is thickening, isn't it? Here we GOO00000oooo...(gasp for breath) **

All around our little group, Survivalists were packing gear into packs and equipping armor and weapons. In general, the encampment was a bustle of activity. Meri walked up.

"What is going on?" she asked, very confused by the twenty or so newcomers running about.

Daniel briefly explained what had happened. "And we're about to follow them out of the city!" he finished.

"That's...interesting." Meri replied, worrying about the inherent dangers of such a journey.

Sensing her apprehension, Zev stepped forward. "Don't worry, we have twenty people with us!"

"And we'll probably pick up more along the way." Cliff added.

"Hey! I was about to say that!" Zev gave Cliff a angry, fierce look. "Can't you think of anything original to say?"

"Wh-what? I'm sorry!" Cliff stammered.

Zev burst into laughter. "Lighten up!"

"Hey, new guys!" Raymond yelled as he walked up. "Come with me to the Advance Squad."

"What's that?" Daniel asked as he lead the others in following Raymond.

"You'll see."

They walked around a tower on the mansion roof and found a group of about eight tough-looking armed warriors. Zev recognized two of them.

"Hey, you two are the ones who knocked me out back there!" she said to the woman and man responsible.

"Sorry, new kid. Just followin' orders." the woman replied. She looked about thirty years old. "Name's Beth. My partner here is Cray." she said, motioning over to the man next to her.

"How'd we we let a Bandit get into the Survivalists?" Cray asked.

"Hey!" Zev scowled as she assumed a fighting stance. "Don't make me floor you both!"

Beth, Cray, and the other people around them looked at each other, and laughed for about a minute straight.

Finally, Beth wiped the tears from her eyes and assumed a fighting stance as well. "Well, well, well. Honey, if you want to get your butt kicked, then go right ahead!"

Zev's answer was the best spin kick she ever executed aimed at Beth's face. Beth ducked under the foot, and stepped forward to punch Zev. Zev blocked the blow with her arm, but was forced back a few feet. Beth followed up with kick, and Zev dodged to the right, spun, and tried to kick again. This time Zev caught Beth off guard, and her foot traveled a few centimeters from Beth's face. If this surprised her, she didn't show and took the next few punches Zev hurled at her. Beth dodged the last punch, and spun Zev around, ending the fight by putting Zev in a headlock.

"Agh! You win!" she cried out.

Beth let her go. "Not bad for a beginner. We could use you out there. I assume your friends are similarly proficient in whatever they do?"

Zev thought for a minute. Daniel was a swordsman, Cliff was the strong-arm, possibly, but Meri? What did she do? "For the most part, yeah."

Marcus walked up. "OK guys, get ready to saddle up. We're going ahead of the Supply group."

A chorus of affrimatives followed the order, and in minutes the Advance Squad was marching out the mansion. They turned down the street and headed for the gateway out of the city. Waiting for them were a group of looters, about fifteen of them manning a barricade covering the gate.

"_Shivos." _Zev muttered under her breath, and the rest of the Advance squad exchanged uneasy looks.

"What do we do?" someone asked.

"We go straight through them. We get into a melee fight, we win." Marcus said, and started running down the street. The rest of the warriors followed him...

...only to be stopped in their tracks when the looters pulled out bows and started firing. A hail of arrows flew down the street, and for the first time the Advance Squad noticed that the street leading up to the gateway was suspiciously clear of debris to duck behind, and that the doors of the houses were _locked_.

"Trap." Beth muttured as she dove to one side, avoiding the whizzing arrows. Cray followed her. Zev rolled to their spot in an alcove provided by a fancy doorway, and pulled out her bow at the same time. She fired a few arrows off, and then took time to look around. She was horribly unprotected in her spot, but some off her comrades were completely out in the open. One of the Advance Squad had taken a hit right through the heart during the initial ambush, and lay in the street, his blood pooling in a crimson stain on the street. Another was down with an arrow to the leg, and everyone else were hiding. Cliff ran up to her.

"How are you doing with that bow of yours?" he yelled as he slid in next to her.

"I can't get a clear shot without exposing myself fatally!" she replied.

"I can fix that..." he grunted as a pulled of the cover to a shop window in the side of the wall. "You're good!" he said as he held it up as a shield.

"Thanks!" Zev said, giving a warm smile, and even Beth smiled approvingly. Not to be outdone, Cray ripped the _door_ out of its hinges and hurled it aside, lock and all.

"How did that help!?" Cliff yelled.

Cray ignored him: "Over here!" he yelled. The rest of the Advance Squad sprinted inside, dragging their wounded man with them, but leaving the body in the street. "You can go ahead and protect your girlfriend," Cray smirked "I'll worry about protecting everyone else!"

Both Cliff and Zev began to say that they he/her wasn't her boyfriend/his girlfriend, but Cliff was already inside.

"Well, that was pretty useless." Cliff muttered as he flung away the wooden cover. "Guess you'll get a better shot up on the roof."

"Aw, I think that was kinda sweet!" Zev smiled, pulling him inside. "C'mon."

They found everyone on the roof, readying their weapons for another round of her suprise, Zev found everyone had a bow. Her jaw dropped. _I hope their not quite as good as Beth was at martial arts. Can't I be the best at anything now?_

Cliff read her expression, and leaned in close. "I think you'll be better than all of them!" he grinned.

"I could kiss you right now...but it'll have to wait." she finished as the rest of the team gathered around Marcus. Cliff frowned.

"Alright, listen up. New plan: I think some light people could jump the gap from here to the wall, and infiltrate the gatehouse. Then we can hit'em from both directions! Volunteers?" Zev, Cliff, Daniel, two other people they didn't know, and suprisingly, Meri, raised their hands.

"I'll lead." said one of the other guys.

Daniel leaned near Meri "Why did you volunteer?"

"Because of why you're asking me right now. So you'll treat me as a real fighter, not some dumb princess!" she replied.

"My name's Max, but enough of that. Let's go!" their leader yelled, leaping off the building at the wall. All the volunteers followed him. They got onto the ramparts, and came face-to-face with seven looters that were sitting there, hiding, waiting to ambush the people on the roof. They were surprised by the appearance of the team, and pulled out stone swords and charged the group, yelling for backup.

Daniel stepped in first and started dueling with a looter. Cliff was right behind him, smashing a looter into the ground without getting hit by the sword, Max and his friend were fighting another bandit, and Zev was driving her opponent back with a series of lightning punches and kicks. Meri suprised everyone, however. When Daniel saw two looters angling towards her, he furiously increased his attacks on his enemy, until he finally broke his enemy's stone sword and sent him running away. Before he could reach Meri however, she spoke.

"Please surrender. I don't want to hurt you!" she said. The two looters scoffed, and one stepped forward to swing. "Very well..."

As he attacked, Meri dodged backwards and watched as the looter tripped over a small, seemingly insignificant hole in the floor and fell on her. She grabbed his legs and flipped him over her, and before the other one could recover from his surprise, in one smooth motion she picked up a board while ducking under the looter's feeble swing, and smacked him with it. He was knocked over the edge of the ramparts...and into a thorn bush. He screamed, then made a painful but not fatal mistake by thrashing about.

Meri winced as Daniel walked up, his opponent defeated, and brought his sword hilt down on the second looter's head, knocking him out. "That was..._amazing!_" he said, and meaning it.

The rest of the looters were hopelessly outmatched, and were fleeing, unconscious, or dead. They ran along the ramparts to the gatehouse, and dropped down on the looters there, preventing them from firing any more arrows. Within seconds, the Advance Squad came up to help them, and before they could fight almost at all, the looters were routed, with about eight being captured.

"Join us, or you will go back out there." Raymond scowled, tilting his head toward the City, smoke rising from a dozen different raging blazes. In the end, three looters stayed, the rest taking their chances in the city. Down one member, and up three, the Advance Squad signaled the Supply people that the coast was clear.

The rest of the Survivalists marched down the street, distressed as they stepped over the body of their former member lying the street.

"What happened out there?" Richard asked as he walked up to Marcus and Raymond.

"Ambush. Jim took it through the heart at the beginning." Raymond said, motioning towards the dead body.

"But, we picked three new guys." Marcus said, pointing at the three looters, two guys and one girl, awkwardly standing around.

"They can't be that good." Richerd frowned.

"Oh yeah, they're pretty horrible at fighting. But they'll learn." Marcus said, hopefully.

"Or die." Raymond said. "The Outlands will kill them."

"Yeah. Who's gonna train them?" Richard asked.

"How about...the new guys?" Marcus said.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Raymond agreed.

"Alright then." Richard nodded. "Hey! New guys!" Zev, Cliff, Daniel, and Meri came, but also the three looters came as well. "Ok, that works."

"What do you need us for?" asked one of the looters, a hefty, strong-looking fellow that had scruffy black hair and a long scar in his arm. The group noticed the looters all were teenagers, which surprised them.

"You guys need training." Richard said, motioning to the looters. "They will provide it." Richard grinned at Daniel and Co.

"What!?" all of them asked as the column of Survivalists made their way out of the city gates. Richard chuckled to himself as he ran to the front of the line. He looked back. "Just don't kill each other!"

**Woo! Out the City! It only took 10 chapters... R&R as always, and look forward to new characters and new locations as the story progresses! Longest chapter so far, with almost 2,000 words in it!**


	11. Encampment

**Note: School is starting, so expect longer delays between chapters now.**

Everyone walked along awkwardly. Meri spoke at last. "So, um, what are you're names?"

The first guy, a tough, brutish looking person spoke first. "Dave, and if you're wondering why we decided to be looters, it's because of Bandits like you!" he snarled, pointing his finger in Zev's face.

Zev wasn't the angriest one though, Cliff was, surprisingly enough. He stepped in front of Dave, grabbing his outstretched arm. "Don't _EVER_ say that again, got it?"

"Says the _Armayan_ who's girlfriend is a _Desert Bandit_? Dave smirked back.

Daniel stepped in the middle of the two. "Come on, lets not kill each other over this, ok? Not worth it." he stated.

Both teens glowered at each other for another minute, then finally separated. Cliff made sure to make his way to the front of the column of Survivalists, while Dave stomped off to the rear, leaving Daniel, Meri, and the two other looters walking in the middle, a little wary of each other now. Zev had followed Cliff.

"Sorry about that. Dave's a little...proud." the girl said, embarrassed. "My name's Claudia Rose." she added a second later.

"Well then Claudia, glad to meet you!" Meri said, smiling. "Who's the little guy?" she said, looking at the kid next to Claudia.

"Who's calling who a kid!?" he snarled back, despite Meri being about six years older than him. He scowled, stomping off to the back of the column.

"Boys." Claudia muttered. "His name is Connor, by the way. He's my brother. He seems to model himself after Dave though. You'll see, Dave can be a great guy to be around. It takes time for him to like you. I feel bad for that Bandit over there." Claudia frowned.

"Hey, you can go meet her if you want too!" Meri said. "Her name is Zevara, but just call her Zev to play it safe. She's really friendly, but don't make her angry."

They started walking for the front of the column. "I thought Desert Bandits killed everyone they saw!" Claudia said. "What's different about this Zevara?"

"One, its Zev. Two, she insists that most Desert Bandits are friendly and kind and _not_ bloodthirsty like everyone says they are. Most Armayans would think she's crazy."

"_I _think she's crazy already."

"And I think she's prettier than you."

"What!?" Claudia laughed. "Impossible!"

"Not so. Even if you're right, I top you both!" laughing and joking, they walked up to Zev, who was pacing alongside a loaded wagon.

Zev noticed them coming and decided to have a little fun. She jumped into the wagon before they saw her, and hid inside the supplies. Claudia and Meri walked up.

"Where is she?" Claudia asked. "You said she would be right here..."

"Yeah, I know. Zev told me that she'd be here, but...this isn't like her." Meri replied, a little confused.

At that moment, Zev slipped out the back of the wagon, and crept behind Claudia as she walked along. Zev held a practice wooden sword in her hand, and aimed it at the back of Claudia's neck and spoke softly in her ear "Don't say a word, and give me your emeralds. Now."

Claudia's eye's widened, and not seeing it was only a wooden sword. She spun around, grabbed Zev's sword hand, and tried to punch her in the face. Zev blocked the blow easily, but backed away, laughing.

"What the...?" Claudia asked.

Meri laughed too. "Zev, you make..._interesting_ first impressions.

Claudia was suspicious. "Wait, what? That was a joke?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Zev asked back.

"Well, it's just...well...how can a Desert Bandit be...friendly?"

Zev gave her an odd look.

"I'm sorry. It's just that, in the City...we saw Desert Bandits do things...and some of the soldiers wouldn't protect us. That's why we became looters in the first place!"

"That's OK. It really depends on where you come from in _Sholtar_ that decides whether you're a bloodthirsty killer or...just normal I guess."

"_Sholtar?_" Claudia asked. "What's that?"

"My homeland." Zev answered. "It once was a lush area, but for whatever reason now it's a wasteland. What little green areas remain have been taken by the chieftains. That's how you get power in _Sholtar._ Water. Vegetation."

"Oh." Claudia said.

"Soooo. I bet the scenery in _Sholtar_ isn't nearly as good as the Royal Gorge here in Armaya!" Meri said.

"No way. I don't know what this "Royal Gorge" is, but in my homeland on clear nights you can..."

And so the conversation continued. The Survivalist column made its way through the small roads running parallel to the Highway, trying to avoid running into looters, Desert Bandits, Armayan Army units, and Notch knows what else. Alone now, Daniel walked up to Richard, who was intensely staring at a map while he walked along in the center of the column.

"Where are we going to build this new civilization?" Daniel asked abruptly.

Richard turned. "Over those mountains. It's like another world in there. The mountain chain surrounds the little place, so it's the perfect spot to build a town or something! It's not really _little_, ok, but it's not too huge for our purposes. See them?"

Daniel looked to the left and saw them, the mountains rising up out of the ground. "Why hasn't anyone colonized there yet?"

Richard frowned. "That's the problem we have. There is no way to actually climb up the mountainside. It's all cliffs on the side facing away from the habitable land in the middle."

"So, why are we going there if we can't get inside?"

"We are planning to make a camp up against the cliff and mine our way inside. I know, I know, that's going to take a rather long time, but I think if we can get our hands on some TNT we can speed up the process greatly."

"Will other people come? Looters, Bandits, Armayan Soldiers, they all could want to stop us."

"We'll have to defend ourselves, then."

_Several hours of marching later..._

The general feeling in the column was utter awe as they stood before the massive ring of mountains, staring straight up at the massive cliff.

Richard broke the silence. "Alright people. This camp is going to have to last a fairly long time, so we're going to need wood, and a lot of it. We'll also need stone, food, and wood, but that can wait. Anyone not cutting down trees will help unpack supplies."

The group became a bustle of activity, and Zev, Cliff, Daniel, Meri, Claudia, Dave, Cray, Beth, Raymond, and four others fetched axes from a supply wagon, and went out into the woods to cut down some trees. Each selected a tree and started chopping. Raymond checked in a few minutes later to see progress, and when he looked up he laughed. Hard. Only two had managed to cut down a tree, and a couple hadn't even started.

Cliff had slammed his way through almost half of his tree, but it was crude and brutal.

Zev had no idea what to do with an axe (she had never seen real trees until a week ago) and was staring curiously at it.

Claudia and Meri had teamed up, but were barely strong enough, even together, to make a chip in the thick trunk.

Daniel was trying to handle his axe like a sword, and it wasn't exactly working out.

Beth could drive her axe a quarter of the way, but no further.

The four other Survivalists were strong and managed to chop through half of their trees, at most.

Surprisingly, Dave had effortlessly managed to cut down an oak tree, and was in the process of cutting it up into manageable pieces.

And Cray had brute-forced his way through a birch tree.

Raymond shook his head, and called for everyone to come to him. After they did so, he explained "This isn't really going anywhere. Girls, find something to do, and everyone else, look at how Dave's doing it. He seems to be pretty good. Dismissed."

Zev, Meri, Claudia, and Beth clustered together, not knowing exactly what to do.

"You know, I could teach you girls some of these martial-arts moves." Beth suggested finally, winking at Zev, who scowled, but not with hostility, more with hurt pride.

Meanwhile, Dave was teaching the other guys pretty efficiently, and in no time, everyone was chopping up pieces of wood, and processing them into usable planks.

By the time they had arrived, it had been late, so only an hour into their work, Marcus walked up. "Richard wants us to get back to the camp. We have dinner and shelters ready, and he says we can do some weapons training." They followed him back to the camp.

As they got back, they saw that people had gone fishing, as they had fish for dinner. There was a couple good campfires set up, and some tents as crude shelter, but it didn't seem that there were enough for everyone. There also was some markings in the cliff to indicate were the mine would be, and training field that had target dummies for both bows and swords. A crude wooden palisade had been started in one corner of the camp.

After dinner, the camp broke up for weapons training. Zev headed over to the archery section, where six or so archers were busy firing arrows at the dummies. She observed they were very rigid and slow in their movements, not flowing and quick like she had been taught. All the archers had heard that the new Bandit girl was a great archer, so they all watched as she walked toward the firing line. They were all very surprised when she did not stop at all, but in one fluid motion pulled out her smaller bow, notched an arrow, and fired, all while moving, which astounded them. The arrow hit the target dead on. She looked around.

"What did I do?"

Meanwhile, at the sword range, Daniel was defeating all comers in sparring sessions with wooden swords. Seeing nothing was really getting done, Raymond walked up. He got the archery people over and handed them swords, and then divided the Survivalists there into two teams, and asked for leaders. Daniel stepped forward, but to the surprise of all, Cliff also stepped forward, brandishing a wooden axe.

"You're going down!" he smiled to his old friend.

The teams ended up being Daniel, Beth, Zev, Max, Marcus, and five others on one team, with Cliff, Claudia, Dave, Meri, Raymond, Cray, and four others on the other. Richard stood well off to the side, refereeing the match.

On a common thought, the two teams began attacking at the same instant. Daniel found himself fighting Raymond, and the two dueled in the midst of the fierce fighting. Daniel parried every attack that Raymond was throwing at him, but was being pushed further and further back.

Then, Daniel looked past Raymond for a moment and saw Meri, who wasn't fighting at the moment. And who was looking at him. Getting beaten up. That thought rienvigorated him, and he did his signature move, slicing, spinning, slashing, and jump attacking. It worked perfectly, and he hit Raymond, tagging him out of the fight.

Raymond scowled. "I'll get you next time!" he promised.

Max was quickly knocked out of the fight by Cray, while Claudia was hit by Zev, who was slicing her way through the enemy team. Cliff angled to fight her, but Zev was intercepted by a young girl, whom she gently knocked out of the fight. She then turned to Cliff.

"You're next! And don't think I'll be so gentle on you!" she yelled as the dodged a swipe by his axe. She dove to avoid his next swing, and then lept over his axe when he aimed low, then kicked him in the face and stabbed in the chest with the wooden sword. Cliff lay on the ground, stunned. Zev bent down and quckly kissed him on the cheek.

" I said I could kiss you back there, didn't I? Now STAY down!" she said, regaining her game face.

Before the fight could continue, Richard stepped in and yelled. "Everyone, stop! Find a place to sleep, it's time to go to sleep."

A chorus of groans and scowls followed his command, and the Survivalists ran to claim the few tents available.

"Come on!" Zev said to Cliff as she pulled him along to a big tree. The branches were oddly formed to make a platform of sorts in the middle of the tree.

"Think you can get up there?" Zev grinned.

"No problem. Of course I can!" Cliff grinned back, and jumped onto the closest branch, pulling himself up. "See?"

"Hah. That had no style!" Zev ran at the branch, then jumped, grabbed it, and did a gymnast-sque swing onto it. "_That_ had style."

"Rigggghhhht." Cliff started climbing and pulling himself up, trying to reach the platform before Zev.

"I'll give you a head start! You need one!" she yelled after him, and sure enough, five sconds later, she started vaulting, swinging, and jumping up the tree.

Cliff reached the top, panting, and saw Zev wasn't there. "Heh, I guess I didn't need that head start after all, did I?" he said to himself.

"Actually, it didn't matter." came a voice from above. Cliff looked up in alarm. Zev was hanging from a branch above him, and with that she let go and joined on the branch platform, also tired. "I can gloat tomorrow. For now, I'm just gonna sleep."

And so the Survivalists had their purpose. They had a new land. They had a band of warriors.

And they were going to build a new civilization.

**School is coming up! And we know what that means...slowed down chapter updates! Sorry about this, but my parents want me to at least get accustomed to my new grade before continuing with my writing. So, I guess I'll see you soon...hopefully! Don't give up on me yet. I'm not dead...it****'s just school. See you soon!**


	12. The Mine

**School shall not stop me yet! MWAHAHAHAHA! *cough* Insanity aside, here is our next chapter!**

Meri woke up first. She lay there for a minute, savoring the crisp silence. It occured to her that she had never really experienced silence in Armaya. The City was _never _quiet. Ever. She looked around her, taking in the clear, clean country air.

She looked around her. The tent Daniel and her were in was on the outskirts of the Survivalist camp, and Daniel was still sound asleep. Meri quietly got out of bed, and slipped out the tent door. The sun was just rising, but it didn't seem that anyone else was awake. She looked at the trees around the camp, and found that she was mistaken. There, on top of the tallest tree, was Zev, sitting on a branch, probably enjoying the glorious morning as well.

Zev was indeed enjoying the morning from her perch. She looked down o the Survivalist camp at the foot of the cliff, and noticed someone climbing her tree. Then again, climbing wasn't an accurate description of it. The person seemed like a spirit, flying up the tree, not even seeming to touch a branch, so fleeting and graceful her movements were. _Her_. It was Meri!

Meri gracefully jumped onto the branch Zev was on. _"_Meri! That was _amazing!"_

Meri modestly smiled, a little embarrassed. "No, it wasn't."

"Of course it was!" Zev said, awed. "Where did you learn how did you do that!?"

Meri looked away, toward the city they had left. "Living in the palace sometimes got _really_ boring. Climbing trees was a diversion of mine. Actually, I'm here, and not cooped up in the castle, because I got bored with the feast."

"Feast?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm quite serious. What does that mean?"

"So you know how to properly use 'quite', but you don't know the definition to feast? Anyways, it's a banquet, a large meal, a..."

"I get it. I knew such a word existed in your language, just not the actual word for it. The _Sholtar_ language does not have a comparable word. I guess no one had ever really thought to make an unnecessarily large meal. Food was scarce." she admitted.

"You know, that reminds of the time they served nothing but mushroom soup at the palace for weeks. That was really funny. Kinda reminds of the time..."

Neither teenager noticed the bustle in the Survivalist camp below. Everyone was awake now. People were running about, some continuing the work on the wooden palisade, while most crowded around the spot where the mine would begin. Cliff met up with Daniel in the crowd.

"Hey buddy, where ya been?" Cliff smiled as he hefted a stone pickaxe given to him for the mining.

"Sleeping." came the groggy reply. "By the way, have you seen Meri anywhere?"

"Nope. Zev's gone somehwere, too. Well, they can probably take care of themselves, can't they?"

Daniel nodded his assent. "Yup. Let's get to the Mine.

"Don't you think they could have been at least _slightly_ creative with naming this thing?" Cliff scowled. The City. The Highway. The Mine. When would it end..?

"O.K. people, listen up! Raymond screamed, at the head of the mine. "We start digging in ten minutes. We have information that there is a large cave system running inside the mountain, and we will in all probability run into it. There is also an old mine there. It was sealed up though several years ago, for reasons no one knows. Proceed with caution people."

"That's it?" a Survivalist dubiously yelled.

"No. One other things: Don't be complete idiots, please." Raymond called back, and everyone laughed.

And so work began. Daniel and Cliff selected a spot, and started chipping away at the stone. Everyone threw their backs into it, and the mine cut deeper and deeper into the mountain. Then the stone started to get tougher for some reason, and everyone who had been unlucky enough to grab a meer wooden sword in the morning had to break off. Torches were placed at specific intervals.

"Sorry man, I can't go on." Daniel gasped.

"Getting weak?" Cliff teased.

Daniel groaned, and stumbled away to the sunlight, arms aching from the monotonous swinging.

Cliff grinned to himself, and continued swinging. Suddenly, his pick slammed through the stone, and broke into an open space. Cliff leapt back, terrified.

"Stay back!" Raymond yelled, as everyone edged away from the opening, brandishing their pickaxes like swords.

They just froze there for a few seconds. Finally, one of the Survivalists cautiously stepped forward, and smashed down the rest of the wall. Raymond threw a torch inside the space.

There, just standing there, were...things. They probably were formally people, but their rotting, decayed bodies seemed to kill the option they were still alive. They were standing there, though, and suddenly the lunged forward at the miners. The brave Survivalist jumped backwards, avoiding the swing of a diseased arm by one of the things.

"Run!" Raymond screamed.

Suddenly, the area towards they were running crashed down, and several monsters strode out. Cliff ran up to the lead, and smashed down a monster with his pickaxe. Another Survivalist, Max, followed his lead, spinning his heels and using his momentum to strike down another monster. The rest of the monsters angled for Max and Cliff, deeming them threats.

"GO!" Cliff cried, swinging at the crowd pressing at the miner's backs.

Raymond locked eyes with him, running away, and for the briefest moment Cliff saw genuine concern, his eyes seeming to plead forgiveness at leaving him.

Raymond turned to Max, who was keeping the monsters at bay with his pickaxe. Cliff looked down at his toolbelt, and realized he still had his axe from yesterday. He grabbed it and buried into the head of another monster, who was sneaking up on Max.

"We need to get out of here!" Max yelled.

Cliff looked at the exit. It was swarming with the things, but they were attacking him and Max, not the others. Perversely, it appeared that the only way to live longer was to run _into_ the old mine.

"This way!" Max yelled, sprnting for the hole, torch and pick in hand. So he had figured it out, too.

_Not bad_ Cliff thought, grabbing a torch off the wall. He ran after Max, who led the way into the dark room they had found. It split off into several different mineshafts. Cliff noticed one of them seemed to be in slightly better shape than the others, which seemed about ready to cave in. He sprinted down that one, Max close behind. They ducked into a corner, breathing heavily.

"What now?" Max asked. "We don't have any food..."

"We find another way out. This place has to connect to a cave system, another mineshaft, _something_." Cliff said, getting up. "We head farther in."

"What!?"

"Those monsters. We need to get as far away from them as possible." Cliff explained.

Max had a hundred more questions regarding the feasibility of going _deeper, _but they stuck in his throat as he watched the monsters advance closer.

"No time!" Cliff yelled, running down deeper, holding his torch out ahead of him, its feeble glow affording some sense of what lay ahead.

And so they ran on for what seemed to be ages. This particular tunnel had no branches leading off in different directions, and simply went straight. Neither Max nor Cliff noticed this, however, until they practically collapsed near a random torch handle, which they set one of their torches on.

Max slumped against the wall. "I hope that lost them." he muttered.

Suddenly, a inhuman scream echoed through the passage. Before either could comment on it, a second, seemingly human scream was heard. The direction the screams had came from seemed impossible to determine, but both assumed that the screams had come from the direction the had run from.

Cliff heaved himself up, and uttered one word between is gritted teeth. "Barricades."

They looked around and saw that there was wood fencing and planks scattered around the tunnel. They started picking them up, and cramming them together to form a makeshift wall. They had nearly got a decent looking structure assembled, when, from behind, came another scream. This time, there was no mistaking the fact it was coming from _behind_ them. They whirled.

An intense light was a moderate distance away, and approaching fast. The light burned in their eyes, and they stumbled back, stunned by the brilliance of it.

And then, a figure propelled itself past them and into their barricade, and the first scream they heard, the terrible, inhuman one, repeated itself.

And it seemed to come from right next to them.

**Sorry about the MASSIVE wait, but finally, I got my chapter up after about 100 words a day of writing, and irregularly at that. Forgive me, and expect more soon, with luck.**

**3 Prophecy of Minecraftia and Gone**


	13. The Underground

**OK, for one, I just had to reread my entire story to remember all my characters again, which is pretty sad. Not writing about them for a month does that.**

**Two, my story had 963 views six days ago. Since I have released my twelfth chapter, it has risen to 1,198. Thanks you so much!**

**And so, without further ado, here is chapter thirteen!**

Max and Cliff looked up, expecting a horrible monster to be there. Instead, they found themselves staring at a human-shaped figure, lying amongst the ruined barricade. Max raised his pickaxe, expecting it to be another monster of the sort that had forced them down here.

"No, wait!" Cliff hissed.

Max stopped the pickaxe a second before he took the swing. "What?"

"Just where do you think you're pointing that thing!?" a clear, sharp voice demanded.

Max grabbed the torch lying on the ground, and held it up. He saw a smallish girl with vibrant, long red hair staring back up at him, more angry than anything.

"Wait, what in the Nether?" Max stammered.

"Heh. 'Wait, what?'" the girl mimicked. "Sharp things kill people, you know!"

Max darkened. "Yeah, you'd think I would know that."

"Who do you think you're talking to?" the girl scowled.

"Someone who doesn't seem to appreciate the situation they're in! Do you want to die alone down here?!"

"Maybe that would be the best choice."

Cliff stepped in between them. "Woah, woah. Let's not kill each other over this one, OK? Shut up you two!"

They stepped apart, glowering at each other. "I don't suppose that it was you who screamed like that back there..." Max mumbled.

"Of course not! That was the _thing_ following me!" the girl stated.

"What thing!?" Cliff and Max said at the same time.

"Imagine a little teeny spider, then make him about your size, deathly blue, and with an attitude."

"An attitude worse than yours?" Max smirked.

"Why you-" the girl's indignant reply was cut off by that same unearthly scream again. Nervously, the girl picked up the lamp-like object she had dropped, flicked a small switch on it, and again an intense light shone from it, although this time away from their eyes.

The corridor seemed to stretch on forever, but racing toward them was indeed a man-sized spider, blue, and with glistening fangs. The three humans recoiled in horror. Max and Cliff whipped their makeshift weapons out, but the girl just laughed and pulled a beautiful, emerald encrusted, gleaming iron sword.

_I bet she doesn't even know how to use that thing._ Max thought to himself.

Cliff stepped forward to hit the spider, but before he could do so the spider leaped at him and knocked him down, only in turn to be whacked by Max. Max tried to finish off the spider, but the spider hit him away with the swipe of one of its legs.

The girl stepped up, and took a swing at the spider, which just barely cut it, and sent hit scurrying backwards.

"Yes!" she exulted.

As soon as she said that, however, the spider screamed again. Pure horror filled them as they heard the cry responded by many, many similar ones farther down the tunnel. "Oh no..." the girl breathed.

Without another word, all three turned and started sprinting back the other way, towards the entrance. The corridor seemed to stretch on and on and on.

Finally, when it seemed they could not summon another ounce of strength, they finally reached the end, and broke out into the large room, this time fully illuminated by the lantern that the girl carried. They gasped. The room was huge, with destroyed equipment, houses, dead grass, dead trees, _rivers._ All this contained in one huge room. The roof was unseen, as the lantern's glow did not reach up there. But it wasn't over, as they saw. More of those _things,_ those...monsters lurked the underground town.

And they hadn't ignored the lantern's light.

* * *

**Woot! First split story of A New Civilization!**

Meanwhile, back at the Survivalist camp, news had come of the horrific new threat, and that Cliff and Max were missing.

Raymond was visibly shaken, and just looked straight ahead as Richard approached him. Richard didn't say anything, just sat down next to Raymond.

Finally, the silence was broken. "I left them." Raymond simply said. "I'm the leader. I left them. I-I...wha-"

Richard, seeing no use in Raymond blatthering on about how he left Cliff and Max, quietly interrupted him. "Then get them." he said.

Raymond looked at him, then got up and walked to the entrance of the Mine. "Who will come with me?" he asked to the assembled crowd.

Daniel stepped forward. "Meri, don't come with me." she started to protest, but he cut her off. "Cliff is my friend. I have to go. You don't."

Zev stepped forward. "I'm coming, too. And don't try to stop me!"

Cray and Beth stepped forward. "Why not?" Cray offered as way of explanation.

Everyone got their equipment, and packed them into their backpacks. Torches (of course), extra swords, food, a compass, pickaxes. Raymond led the way inside, and the little group walked further and further down the shaft the Survivalists had created. Several members of the Advance Squad escorted them, bur had orders not to actually go inside the mine.

Before long, they made it down to the room, strangely devoid of the horrific monsters. That didn't last long.

Suddenly, from a small side tunnel, monsters began to lurch out. Dave, who was an accepted member of the Advance Squad by now, attacked them, backed up by the rest of the escort. Cray joined them, flinging monsters aside with every stroke. The rest of the group continued on.

Past the original room now, they unknowingly entered the huge underground city. Their torches simply illuminated the road, which did strike them as odd, even weirder still was the huge glow coming form the other end of the room. They were astonished at the apparent size of the room. The light seemed to be coming from a small_ house_ at the other end of the room.

Raymond, Daniel, Zev, and Beth started running for that light.

* * *

There were now something like 50 monsters now trying to bash down the door of the small house that Cliff, Max, and the girl had barricaded themselves in. They took turns trying to hold the door closed. They had already piled tables, crafting benches, furnaces, chairs, anything they could to keep the door closed. The roof had become stifling, and everyone was drenched in sweat.

"Your turn..." Cliff gasped, falling down.

The girl leapt up to keep the barricade in place. But she couldn't. She started to give way, simply too exhausted to keep up the strenuous effort of holding the horde back. Max jumped up, and together they pushed the barricade back into place.

"Have they abandoned us...?" Max wondered aloud.

"No." Cliff said, getting back up.

"How do you know that?" Max replied, suddenly rather angry.

Cliff said nothing, but continued to stare out a window. A monster was standing out there, and as Max turned to look at it, he saw a small arrow suddenly stick out of it's head, and fall down. Cliff knew what that kind of arrow arrow that was. A Desert Bandit arrow. And there was only one Desert Bandit that would bother coming down into this place.

_Zevara Vilinuz._

* * *

As he though that, Zev was notching another on her bow. Several of the monsters noticed the group, and angled in for the attack. Daniel swiftly moved forward and sliced down a monster, while Beth stayed back with Zev and started sending a hail of arrows downrange. Raymond joined Daniel, and together they ferociously cut his way through the crowd of monsters.

_This is so easy!_ Daniel thought to himself. It was so effortless, fighting things without swords of their own to block, parry, or even attack you! Daniel was a a spirit, spinning, slashing, stabbing, bashing. He was no longer Daniel Redstone: he was a guidance system for his sword, nothing more. He felt the adrenalin flow through him, not as a pushing force, but a calm wave, strengthening his movements, driving his focus in the battle to a mere pinpoint.

Raymond felt much the same, save for the fact he was not using his sword as how an artist might wield a paintbrush: Daniel was excelling at that. Raymond was using his weapon as if it were a hammer, and the monsters were his anvil. Crushing and brute force were his style, overcome with a burning desire to redeem himself after leaving Cliff and Max down in the Mine.

For her part, Zev was completely terrified. Having grown up under the endless sky of the _Sholtar _homeland, she was completely unused to being in such a confined space. Eyes wide as saucers, she continued the rhythmic motion of notching her arrows, and firing them at the monsters.

* * *

**Stories converge back together now.**

* * *

Seeing the monsters stop smashing at the door, and lurching off to attack the other group, Cliff, Max, and the girl opened the door, strode outside, and started attacking the nearby monsters. Between Daniel's detached state of pure skill at swordsmanship and Raymond smacking away anything that came near, the monster's numbers were quickly reduced to exactly zero.

Cliff ran up to Zev, who forgot her consuming fear of enclosed spaces and hugged as tightly as she could when he got to her.

"I knew you'd come for me!" Cliff whispered gratefully.

"Don't ever run off like that again!" Zev whispered back, tearing up. "Please!"

Cray and the rest of the Advance Squad ran up from the entrance. In but a moment, all the Survivalists were happily talking and laughing, overjoyed Cliff and Max were alive.

The girl just awkwardly stood there while that happened. Max was the first to remember her, however, and when he stopped talking, everyone else slowly turned to face her.

Max spoke for the rest of the group:

"Who are you?"

**Woot! Finally, another chapter done!**

**:D love Gone**

**:D love The Prophecy of Minecraftia**


	14. The Underground, Part II

**I'm baaaaaaack! Extra long chapter as a compensation for the terribly long wait you had to endure :'(**

**HUAHAHAHAHAHA! SO MANY REVIEWS! THANK YOU!**

**Holy crap, I never seriously expected to reach the point where OC submissions were a possibility! Again, THANK YOU!**

**I have now decided to respond to reviews!**

**exb756 - Yeah, cave spiders suck. And thanks to your review, milk will now become part of the story! Hooray for cave spider venom!**

**pikminpro - I accept your OC. However, our characters actually need to find a jungle before they find -unknown_name_OC- Thanks!**

**Donut Yang - I will consider your OC...IF you allow me to tweak her a bit. Just a bit...**

**And now, Part Two of The Underground!**

The girl looked away, slightly embarrassed by so many new faces. "My name is Rebecca Diamond VVII."

Max raised an eyebrow. "Diamond?"

Rebecca scowled. "It's a family name!"

Max raised his hands in defense. "Hey, I wasn't saying you weren't worthy or anything! Just... a little taken aback."

"You didn't answer his question. _Who_ are you? How did you wind up down up here?" Raymond asked.

"I was getting to that..." Rebecca said, shooting Max a look. "Anyways, I didn't 'wind up' down here; I _live_ down here." A second later she shook her head. "I know what you're thinking. No, I don't live down _here." _she gestured around the city. "I live with my family in a shelter down there." she said, pointing at an innocent-looking drainage hole.

She started walking toward the hole, but before she got three steps she gasped and doubled over. Max hurried over. "What's wrong?"

She looked up, and rolled up her left sleeve without a word. On her arm was a small gash. Spreading from it were small lines of green. Imagine a shattered windshield.

"Cave Spider venom." Rebecca gasped, before falling down.

Everyone else looked on in shock. Max was the first to react. "Help me!" he commanded, and together he and Cliff helped up Rebecca and dragged her to the hole, where they jumped down.

* * *

Inside was dark and musty. Cliff and Max looked around. Everything was dark.

Max smacked his head. "Of course. Guys, we need some torches down here!" he yelled back up.

A light filled the room. _Wow, that was fa-_ Max's train of thought was interrupted by the realization that he was surrounded by several people, and that the light that enveloped him was far too powerful for some torches. When his vision cleared, he realized he was surrounded by men with swords pointed straight at them.

One man stepped forward to attack them, but stopped cold when he recognized Rebecca. "Wha-put her down! Who are you?!"

"Please! Wait! We helped her...she helped us..." Max pleaded.

"Oh thank Notch! Darling, you're alive!" the man gasped, and Max guessed he was her father.

Suddenly, another of the men stepped forward, eyes wide. "Get away from her! She's been bitten!" he screamed, pointing at her arm.

"No..." the father sobbed.

The other man was less tearful. "Get her away!" he commanded, pointing at Max and Cliff.

Neither budged, slightly stunned at what had just happened.

"Move!" he said again, waving his sword.

Without a word, Cliff and Max carried her out of the drainage ditch and back into the city.

* * *

The Survivalists were very confused at this point, with what they heard making no sense. Cliff started to explain basically what had happened, but Max was distracted by a small note that the first man had slipped him as they had scrambled out.

_Quickly, get into the palace and find the cure to this horrible plague. We are so afraid of it, they just cast out my own daughter, Rebec- no time, go, but be c-_

And all of a sudden, the text stopped. Max guessed the man had not had enough time to write the rest of the note. He looked up. Rebecca was starting to get up again. Max ran over.

"We tried to get into the pipe, but then th-" Max was cut off in the middle of his harried explanation.

"I know, I know. I heard the whole thing..." Rebecca sighed. "I thought that my dad would put up a better fight than that...I'm dead..."

"No. No you're not. There's a cure!" Max exclaimed, rather suprising everyone.

"Shut up. Stop giving me hope. You get bit by a cave spider...you're dead. No chance. Just gotta wait for death, I suppose." she groaned, downcast.

"You'll see." Max scowled, and ran off.

Rebecca looked around. No one else was paying any attention anymore, as they were all crowded around the drainage hole in curiosity. She ran after him, clutching her arm.

* * *

Max finally stood before the large building he assumed was the palace. The door was barred shut, and he prepared to bash it down with some scrap wood.

However, a voice stopped him. "Max, wait! STOP!" Rebecca screamed.

Max spun around. "What are you doing here? Get back to my friends!"

She glared at him. "No!"

Max jerked back, stunned. He glanced away. "Sorry for trying to help..." he mumbled.

"Agh, I'm sorry. I always ruin things with my temper, don't I?" Rebecca said, the anger draining out of her, replaced by dread. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah. Sure." Max growled, and lifted the chunk of wood yet again to smash the door.

"What did I tell you?" she snapped, grabbing his arm. Max shot her a look. "Yeah, sorry. But...don't open that door!"

"Why not...?"

"I'll explain later, just go this way, ok?" she said, climbing through a broken window.

Max went in after her, and found the inside musty but well lighted by the holes in the roof. He looked at the doorway, and saw that it had a small piece of rope that was rigged to these strange boxes, hooked up by this mysterious red dust/wire that snaked along the floor.

"What's this?" he wondered aloud, reaching for some of the wire.

Rebecca shoved him aside, and threw a stick on the wire. A second later, the wire glowed with an intense red light, and several arrows shot out of boxes and imbedded themselves in the doorway. Max stepped back, wide eyed.

"And that is why I didn't want you to break down that door..." Rebecca chided. "Come on, and try not to get killed along the way." she said behind her as she headed down a hallway.

Max ran to catch up with her. "Wait, who booby-trapped this place? Why the heck would they do that? What's h-"

Rebecca interrupted him. "You see...I was just a little girl when we still lived in this city. We were cut off from the rest of the world, and the only contact we had was these miners that came down. A few years ago, they discovered something. We have no idea what, but it turned them into those...things that we saw earlier. The plague quickly spread, and what was left of our people hid in these bunkers. The miners also unleashed those spiders, and my people are paranoid of their bites. They _will_ kill you, and a lot of people think their venom is the reason behind the infection."

Max was, overwhelmed to say the least. "Still not answering my question..."

"Oh, yes. That. Anyways, right before we gave up and ran for the bunkers, the mayor announced that he had found a cure for the bites. Unfortunately, he went a bit crazy and along with a couple" here Rebecca grimaced, "and barricaded themselves in the palace. We're a whiz with redstone, you see, and they trapped it so no one would steal their power, the cure."

"Well then...why did they just leave a giant hole in the window?" Max asked.

"Well, it wasn't there when they were alive, you dummy!" she retorted. Max nearly said something before he realized that her voice had been playful, not actually angry. _But there's a fine line between that..._ Max mused.

Farther and farther they advanced into the palace, and the decay off the building exposed traps and/or deactivated them, rendering the entire passage safe.

"And here we are!" Rebecca exclaimed, as they strolled into the main hall of the palace. Max was expecting another run down, broken up place, but instead the room, its furniture, the decorations, the golden throne, _everything_ was in pristine condition.

"Wait, a _throne?"_ Max asked.

"Something isn't right here. This guy was only a mayor, after all..." Rebecca whispered.

Suddenly, from the ceiling came a dreadful laugh. Both teens looked up in horror, to see a old, enfeebled man crouching in a small hole in the ceiling.

"Hows does you leek mee throone?!" he screached.

"He's insa-" Rebecca suddenly gasped and doubled over. "It's the poison!" she exclaimed before falling to the floor in agony.

"Haave yee come ffor the cuure? Leek everyoone eelse? Hahahaha!" the terrible voice berated them, holding a small vial filled with a glowing red liquid.

"Yeah, we have! Give it or face my fury!" Max yelled.

Rebecca looked up. "'Face my fury'? No offense, that was pretty weak."

Max rolled his eyes. "Kinda in the middle of something! Stay down!"

"Mee frieends weel keel youse! Buddiees!" the crazy mayor screamed, pulling a lever. A hidden door in the wall opened up, and a small horde off monsters staggered out. "Gooo awayyy!"

Max was frozen, his mind racing furiously. _Aha! I got it!_ he thought excitedly.

"Hey, mayor!" he yelled.

"Itss KING to youse!"

"This room looks pretty good. But I have a suspicion that you didn't try and fix what was on the inside of the palace, did you?"

"Whaaaas?"

"The framework. What holds all this pretty crap together. Its whats on the inside that counts here, eh?" Max clarified, and slammed his pickaxe into the wall just as the monsters shuffled under the mayor's position. The ceiling fell down, the mayor with it. Max grabbed the healing potion right out of his hand.

"Eeeeiiiii!" he screamed, just as the monsters started to converge n him, an easier target. Max went to help Rebecca up.

"Waiit! Youse saaave mee, not her, riight?" the crazed, evil mayor shouted.

Max looked at the mayor, and then at Rebecca's struggling form. "Are you kidding me?" he asked, and helped Rebecca up with one hand. Together, they staggered down the hallway, leaving the mayor to his fate.

* * *

Once they staggered out of the palace, Max helped Rebecca down and tried to give her the potion. She batted his arm away, with her diseased, feeble arm.

"No! Give it to my people, so they can copy it! We have a dozen more people in an isolation chamber, sick! We can save them, but it'll take more than one potion!" she pleaded.

"Fine. Here, some water." Max offered.

Quizzical, Rebecca would have suspected something had she been fully alert, which she obviously was not. "Thanks." she took a long gulp before realizing that Max had given her the potion.

"What! Why you...you really care for me _that_ much?" she asked, watching the poison receade from her arm.

Max just grinned, and shifted positions. Rebecca hadn't been the only thing Max had brought out of the palace; he had also found a entire box of healing potions in the confusion.

"...I'll get for that one!" she promised.

**So sorry, it took FOREVER to get this chapter out, but here it is. Please submit your OC's, if you have them. Wow, writing the mayor's dialogue _really_ drove SpellCheck crazy, but, screw it.**

**Guys, I almost gave up writing back there. School was overwhelming, and I felt like there were SO MANY other things to do, but just looking at your reviews, your PM's, seeing how you enjoyed my story...you guys are the true reason for this chapter. **

**Thanks so much.**

**Also, every chapter now I shall make a list of my (current) favorite Minecraft fanfictions!**

**+Prophecy of Minecraftia**

**+Gone**

**+The Minercaft Project**

**+Minecraft (yeah, yeah. just find it, ok? its name is actually pretty unique! :P)**

**+Minecraft: The Saga of Kyle**

**One last thing: I'm thinking of writing a pretty unrelated one-shot on my Hardcore character's life. Should I? Head on over to my account page, and check out my poll! **

**You guys are the best. **


	15. Outskirts

**HAPPY 1.4.2 ANY MINECRAFT PLAYERS OUT THERE! Seriously, we could start a holiday gig out of waiting for these updates...**

**pikikikikik(...) - Yeah, yeah. Milk does cure poison. But, it seemed just a little anticlimactic to have Max and Rebecca chasing after milk...I figured that a Healing Potion works just as well in this case. Actually, I _will_ include milk as a cure... you'll see!**

**Well, here is my next chapter!**

**New OC included! Everyone congragulate LightvsDark99!**

**NOTE: I do not own Minecraft. Mojang does. If you didn't know that already.**

As it turned out, there were some forty people in the bunker, and with Survivalist aid managed to seal off the city from the monsters, spider nest, and pretty much the entire rest of the mine. The gratefully began the long task of rebuilding the magnificent underground city they had once inhabited. Also, they became official members of the Survivalists, although the two groups usually operated separately.

The size of the underground city meant that the distance needed to mine thought to the other side was pretty much chopped by a full quarter. That plus the mine itself resulted in the Survivalists being almost halfway to their goal. If they had wanted to, they could have gone into the spider nest, as it ran under the mountains, but that was never given much thought for obvious reasons.

At that point, Richard decided to call the Survivalists together.

"Alright guys. For one, great job on helping our comrades below in their city clear it out. I understand Max is still down there helping out?" he asked.

Raymond saluted. "Yes, Sir!"

Richard raised an eyebrow. "Um...alright. People, this is _not_ a military. Anyways, I've decided that our brave Advance Squad should take a break from that cramped, musty place down there. Guys, take a break."

The Advance Squad looked at each other. One of them stepped forward. "Sir, were exactly do we go? What are we supposed to do?" The rest nodded.

"You people just can't live without having a mission to fulfill, can you? Alright. Split up and head around the outskirts of this mountain range. That ought to take you a couple days, right? Go. We can take care of ourselves. Enjoy this time."

* * *

Several hours later, Daniel, Cliff, Meri, and Zev left the Survivalist camp and headed to the right, while the rest of the Advance Squad minus Max headed left. This goes wihout saying, but they planned to meet right in the middle, and then head back.

It was a beautiful day, and a grassy plain stretched out in front of them. The small group enjoyed themselves, Meri happily cartwheeling along, Daniel watching on in amusement, and occasionally trying to mimic her, generating laughs each time from his failures. Zev was soaking up the brand-new sights all around her, while Cliff walked along, whistling and sharpening his favorite weapon, an iron axe he had found in the Survivalist supply cart.

Suddenly, a chorus of yells sounded from over the next small hill. The group nervously looked at each other, and started running for the hill. Once they got to the top, they were treated by this sight:

A male, appearing to only be a few years older than them but decidedly more mature looking, was running toward them. He was dressed top down in gray clothing, but wore a helmet that was of a deep black shade. In his hand he held a sheathed sword, and apperently was strugling to get it loose as he was chased up the hill by four shady-looking people with iron swords and a random assortment of armor.

He didn't seem to notice them, as he would have ran straight past them if Cliff had not snatched the sheathed sword right out of his hands, and grunted as he wasily pulled it free.

"Who are you?" Daniel asked, only to see he was speaking to the person's back, as he grabbed his sword and turned to face his persuers, who were shocked to see Daniel and Co. "Let me help yo-"

The gray-clothed person slashed his sword at the nearest attacker, causing him to fall to the ground from the jarring blow to his weak sword. The man turned to the next two attackers and spun around the first one's blade while ducking under the second one's swinging sword. He was up in a flash and disarmed to two seemingly with the flick of his wrist. The fourth one took one look at his performance, then suprisingly jumped forward to slice at the swordsman.

He parried easily, and dodged the next blow with a quick lean to the left. He locked blades with the last attacker, then skillfully twisted his sword in such a way that he flipped the other man's sword out of his hands.

"You'll pay for that. You and your puny village!" The attacker snarled, then ran away. The swordsman turned, looking completely mind-blowingly awesome, standing there in the wind, looking calm and collected.

"Who are you...?" Daniel repeated.

"My name is Zerotsu."

* * *

Zerotsu had led them for a short ways until they came upon a small, but bustling town that was partially surrounded by a cobblestone wall. He turned to them.

"Welcome to Yorshire." He simply stated.

"We have tons of questions for you, but I think this one needs priority. Who were those men chasing you?" Cliff asked.

"Several years ago, I woke up near that mountain range with no memory. After several years of wandering, I found this village. It was being cruelly taxed by a nearby group of bandits, so I enlisted the help of townsmen and tried to drive the bandits away..." Zerotsu grimaced.

"Tragically, we failed, and many brave men were killed. However, I escaped and went hunting for a legendary sword, named the Blade of Eden to drive them away. It was a difficult, dangerous, but addicting quest. Anyways, long story short, I found Eden, kicked the bandits out, and am now looked up to as the town's protector. The bandits still try to get back at us, though, and today they caught me without my armor, and with my sword stuck in its sheath. By the way, thanks." Zerotsu said, nodding at Cliff.

"That is one awesome sword..." Daniel muttered, staring. The sword was beautiful, well-balanced, its hilt golden, and it seemed that there was a faint green glow coming from the very core of it.

"Why, thank you. It was took quite an adventure to locate it, you see. I was nearly killed on several occasions."

"We've been no better off than you, buddy." Zev grinned.

"Say...are those people, those bandits that attack you, do they look like my friend?" Cliff asked, frowning.

"Well, you saw the people that attacked me. No, they look you and me. Who _is _she, anyways?" Zerotsu asked.

"I am Zevara Vilinuz, and a proud _Sholtaraan_." she said.

Seeing Zerotsu's confused face, Daniel cut in. "We'll have to explain what that means. In fact, we'll have to catch you up with a lot of things. The world has changed while you lived here, Zerotsu."

"And you are...?"

"Daniel Redstone."

They shook hands, and in that moment each could tell the other was a swordsman. A master swordsman. And while Zerotsu knew of his skill, neither he nor Daniel could forsee the potential that resided in Daniel Redstone. A heroic potential.

* * *

A large group of shabbily clothed, armed people watched the town from a distant treeline. They were laughing and joking to one another, mostly about how they were finally gonna destroy that town and its protector for their leader. Beneath that aura of arrogance and confidence, they were all scared. They had all seen Zerotsu in action before, on previous attempts.

One of their number hovered off to the distance, observing the town through a spyglass. He grunted, looking at the construction being done on the stone walls. His group was attacking one last time, and with everyone, before that wall was finished. Suddenly, is eyes beheld a sight that took his breath away: Daniel Redstone walking along, talking to Zerotsu.

_It's him. My Notch, it's HIM! I've found him! He has come!_ the man thought.

He took out a small notebook and a carrier pigeon, and ripped a page out of the book. He started scribbling a message.

_Folei - It's Gavier. I joined this group of Bandits - no, not Desert Bandits, regular bandits. I've seen what could be Him. Not sure though. I will now execute original orders at all cost. I understand what is necessary. Send the help as soon as possible. It's likely that I won't come back. Pro Bono!_

Gavier looked around, worried someone might see him, and moved behind a small depression in the ground.

"Gavier! Come on!" one of the bandits tersely yelled, as loud as he dared. _No time._

He attached the message to the bird, and threw it into the air, where it started flying west. "Godspeed." Gavier whispered.

He started walking back to his former colleagues. A few minutes ago, he had considered these people allies. But now, there was only on thing that mattered. More than their lives, more than his life. Maybe this guy was Him. Or maybe not. Time would tell.

**o_o **

**Haha, did you get any of that last part? It won't have a major effect on this particular story, but I am planning a sequel. Muahahaha!**

**Also, if I ever have tons of time to burn I just might write a story about Zerotsu's beginnings. **

**As always, thank you so much for reading, and please, please, PLEASE review.**

**Live long and prosper! **


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